Welcome to this park Opper episode of Magical Rewind and I am very excited because, as everybody probably heard over on our other feed, we really liked Buffalo Dreams. And one of the main reasons that I'll just speak for myself that I really liked the movie was because of this actor. I thought he jumped off the screen, and I am very excited to speak with him. How about us, I can't wait, so we don't. We're gonna, We're gonna do no more further ado. We're just gonna jump right
into it. Please help us. Welcome Simon Baker. Hello, Hi, Hey, there we go. How are you?
And good?
Thank you so much for joining us. We are very excited to talk to you. We just reviewed Buffalo Dreams and we really really liked it, so that is uh, you know, we don't. We're going through all Disney Channel movies and I've never seen ninety nine percent of them, so I have no nostalgia attached. I can only watch them as movies. So some of them aren't great. Your movie was really good. We really enjoyed it.
Awesome.
We always like to start with our guests of getting a little bit of your origin story. How did you become an actor. What led you into the industry? How did you know this is what you wanted to do?
Man, I sort of just fell into it. I started when I was seven years old on my nation here in Vancouver and North Vancouver, Squamish Nation. We had this show called White Fang two that was on our came onto our traditional lands and they needed extras. So my mom, being a single parent, she's like, yes, I have three kids, throw them in.
You know.
I didn't know what we were doing, what we were signed up for, but we just jumped in and it was you know, I had part of our culture, a part of it. So you know, we were singing, we're dancing. I didn't even know what I was a part of. And then the director came and said, you know, this young boy stands out every single time he's on camera,
and you know whose boy is this? You know? And my mom at first just held back, was like, let's see, I'm not too sure if it's a good thing or a bad you know, and so he just you know, no, I need to find out whose mom you know, whose parent this is, and so she said, yeah, that's that's that's my boy. And he just said you know this, this boy needs to you know, carry forward, and you know he just has to face that I see all the time, so you know, get him into you know,
here's a card, call this up. And I literally went into went into modeling at john Castle Blanca. I did a part of that, and then I ided a role and carried on from there. It was like one after another and just kept on going. So yeah, from a child, teen adult and now I'm the father role now I guess you know.
It's so funny that you said that, because it's literally one of the things that both Sabrina and I said when we watched the movie. We were like, you do you leap off the screen? I mean, it's you really do. There's just something some people just to get through the glass, and you do. It's just it was amazing.
At some point, did you have to move to la because your acting career was kind of taking off or were you always just kind of traveling in and out. How did auditions find you?
Well, Vancouver is pretty darn good for up there for doing some stuff.
It is you know, it always was, and it was getting to that point, Sabrina where you know, my agent was like, yeah, why don't you go try it out? And so I went down there actually with Buffalo Dreams
when things started to really pick up for me. During that time, I had like three movies coming out at the same time as Buffalo Dreams, and so I was down there in California and you know, did some auditions, some really big auditions, you know, with Clint Eastwood for Flags of Our Fathers, and you know, like I got in the room with him and you know, and things
were getting real. Things were like, man, like I'm stepping into this sort of new you know, it's become the stardom type of thing, and you know, but I just kind of, you know, stepped back and was like, man, this is it's big now, you know, Kelly. And but I didn't really need California. I you know, I'm a homeboy.
And I went back to Vancouver and you know, my agents had said the phones are still ringing, Simon, it seems like you don't need to be down there, you know, like I can just do it from here if you you know, like managers calling and you know, different agents down in California and New York were calling, and I just, you know, I was like, I'll just stick loyal with you, man, and you know, see where we go and see how see how things go for us, and you know, and
and it just kept on going again, you know. And I've just been really blessed and you know, honored to be a part of this industry for so long man. And and yeah, it's been thirty some years going at it, you know.
Yeah, yeah, I'll say now, growing up as a young Native American man and in the entertainment industry, did you have people that you looked up to on television, the actors that you saw their career and kind of said, that's that's kind of what I want to do.
You know. It was. I was a part of this series up here in Canada called North to sixty and it was on CBC and I got to be reoccurring on this show for five years. And all of our Indigenous actors were a part of this, especially you know, the late Gordon Totosis, very phenomenal man tend two cardinal you know, and I've got to work with majority of all of them now, but you know, those were the
real faces out there. You know. I was a huge fan of Legends of the Falls with Brad Pitt and Gordon Totosis was a part of that, and you know it being a young young kid seeing you know, not seeing that many of our faces in the industry at that time. You know, really I didn't understand it, you know, I didn't. It wasn't a thing for me then, not
as it is now. But you know, yeah, the Gordon Totosis, August Schellingberg, you know, Russell means Gary Farmer, you know, just these guys that have been a part of the industry, you know, and changing it for us. You know, they were you know, they were fighting our indigenous inclusion in the industry, but then they were fighting on the outside for politically as well, you know, like just to get
us in in the atmosphere. You know, it wasn't open and we you know, like now that I'm seeing and understanding as an adult that what our Indigenous people had to go through and still go through, you know, I was just so blessed and honored to be in their presence and act with them as well.
You know, I mean I couldn't imagine. So it's I mean one of the people that because we of course want to get into Buffalo dreams, so one of the people that obviously Graham jumps off the screen as well as Graham.
I'm sorry I forgot about it.
Yes, it's somebody I mean who's just been in everything. What was it like to work with him?
So I've known Graham you know before that too. We were we've done a couple of shows, but you know, being in that show, I came from that into the West, but he came, you know, and he's always just been a mentor. He's always just been the guy that has been on screen. He was one of those faces. And I'm sorry I left him out, but Graham, Yeah, man, like he's a legend. You know, he's been in every single show, not just the indigenous shows. You know, just he was you know, he was in Diehard. Yeah, that
was amazing. You know, that was something that really resonated with me. Was you know that I got to see a face, a familiar face, being somebody not an indigenous role. You know, he got to be something more, he got to be. You know, for us, we're always wanting as actors, wanting to do something more outside of who we are. So that's something that he got to do. And working with working with him on Buffalo Dreams, you know, he's like, man, you know, like you've done like three leading roles now.
He's like, that's good on you, bro, good on you.
You know.
And you know, I guess I got to teach and so and and I'll leave this one off. I forgot it's a Disney but he had he had a he had a nickname for me, and well, a traditional name he wanted to give me. And he and you know how Graham he has this very h stoic and you know, very low and deep voice, and so he's sitting in his chair and he's like, well, I guess I got
to give you an Indian name now. And I'm like, oh wow, you know, okay, Graham's going to give me, you know, and he said, He's like, I'm going to give you an Indian name and it's going to be walking Eagle.
And I'm like, oh wow, walking eagle. Eagles fly, Like why why am I walking eagle? And he's like, well, because you're you're too full of it to fly?
I left. I left.
There's an S word in there that you know, you can say, you can say too foolish to fly, you're too flash that great.
And everybody was sitting around to right, and you know, all the actors were sitting around and when when Graham spoke, and you know, he has that methodical you know, and and engaging people when people when he talks, people are just like oh wow. And and so that, you know, everybody was crowded around. We were sitting in our chairs and he was going off about you know, me and you know, boasting me up a little bit and pumping my tires and then he brought me back down.
So now how did you Well, first of all, I guess before we even get into how you first heard about Buffalo Dreams. Were you a Disney channel or a Disney fan?
I grew up off Disney. Who didn't, you know, Like it's so iconic, you know, like Disney is the best we've been. Like my my favorite was Aladdin, Like I love singing it. My sister and I would watch it, and you know it was just a great, a great show. And obviously Pocahontas, you know, it was, you know, one of another great show that we got to you know, our indigenous people and got to be portrayed in in in Disney and that was you know, a stepping stone
for us. Irene Badard, you know it is another great name, but uh yeah too, Disney is is amazing. When I when I heard that I was going to be a part of a Disney Channel show, it was it. You know. I obviously called up the bros And said, guess who's Disney? You know, you know, and you know my siblings as well, and it was a really a great experience to be a part of this show. It you know, my I
brought my brother, my late brother with me. I was getting to a point where I was night or eighteen, so up here in Canada, that's old enough to travel on your own.
Okay.
Disney was like, well, you can bring a chaperone if you want. And I said, you know what, I asked my brother. You know, hey, you know I can, you know, bring you along as my chaperone. You get some pretty am you get a couple of bucks you know you want to have. Yeah. So he was, he was, you know, ecstatic. It was you know, forever, it will forever be one of my greatest memories with him.
Yeah.
We got to travel down. We drove down, actually, uh drove down from drove from Vancouver down to Utah and we just had, you know, just all these little experiences on the road trip down and you know, like my brother didn't really travel too much. He never left the reserve too much, and uh so this was a first for him. And when almost every state that we went through, he sort of got this little anxiety. It's like, oh, whoa what I'm getting a little too far away? What's going on?
You know?
You know, we had to regroup and you know, bring ourselves back down and talk about it, and you know it's like okay, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, let's go a little further. We're not even there yet. Bro, you haven't even got your first payday yet. Come on. So yeah, yeah, it was it was an experience, it, you know, and and to just to get that, you know, the the audition, you know, doing the audition, not knowing what you were auditioning four you know.
Oh you didn't what you didn't know what you were auditioning for. Yeah.
Yeah, it was just a tape like I was, I was on uh I was filming into the West, and I just got the you know, with a little breakdown, and you know, I told my agent at first, I was like, dude, like I'm so busy right now. Can I can I handle another show, like, are they going to even you know, like I'm on this show for like eight months. He's like, don't worry about it, don't worry about it. Let's just let's just send a tape in.
I'm like, okay, cool, you know, and I remember a part of it that I had to sing in it, and I'm like, oh, okay, well, you know that sounds cool. Sure, let's let's try something out, you know, like and so I sent in a little tape that I was singing and you know, just being happy, but you know, and and uh, I think like a week later, I got the call and Gibson's like, my my my agent was like guess what, Simon, And he's like, you You're gonna be on the Disney And I'm like to be a
part of Disney, right, Yeah. It's definitely like.
Wow.
So our our producers obviously deep dive. They do all the research into the film, so we're getting into you know, how many you know days it took to film and all that kind of stuff. One of the things we came across was the fact that there was a little bit of pushback about how it seemed like the indigenous Navajo tribe wasn't represented the way that some people thought they should have been. Did you have any feelings about that as you were filming or you.
Know what it was? When I got to set, we had this Navajo lady that was sort of our liaison type of thing, and she was an amazing woman. She spoke Avajo and you know, really respected. We did a little ceremony to open up and you know that, So that was you know, like these are steps you know that that were a part of what I was understanding of our industry. You know, when I when I was a part of the A Spielberg Show or a Ron Howard Show, we weren't doing these type of things. You know,
we weren't you know, doing these the inclusion parts. We were just filming jumping in, you know. And so with that, you know, just having that type of space available, you know, the representation and having an elder come and do something like that was it was a really big part for me.
And you know, and I understand, you know, if we were filming in Utah, it should have been with the U S, right, it should have had you know, that inclusion, and but we went with the Navajo, and you know, that's a hard part of where you know, when somebody goes out in scouts location, you know that's it's a beautiful location and we should have filmed in Arizona or you know, something like that, but we filmed in Utah, so you know, but now we do you know, these
land acknowledgements up here in Canada, we do land acknowledgements, and we tell, you know, before we start anything a meeting or you know, a conference or even a film. Now we open up saying that, you know, we understand we're on the territory of so and so we respect them. We've already done our homework, our due diligence and saying hey, we're a part of this this uh and we're here
to film. We're not you know, maybe we're not using your culture in this show, but we want to respect you and say that you know we're doing we're working on your territory. And that's almost sort of a part of our protocols as Indigenous people, like if I go on to another territory, I need to, you know, tell them who I am and and respect them that I'm on their territory. And if we do any type of ceremony, they need to be a part of it as well.
So it's you know, it's all these steps and what we're trying to accomplish with, you know, bringing our culture alive and rejuvenate it.
You know.
Yeah, Wow, it's incredible.
Sounds like huge steps and leaks forward towards like crazy.
Yeah, any step forward is good, is good. I think at this point, especially in Hollywood, starting to acknowledge a number of not just the indigenous, but everybody needs to be acknowledged, and so hearing these things is really incredible. Now I have to ask, though, how close did they put you to buffalo? Which can be like serious, these things can kill you. They're well, they're kind of they were trained, like there.
Was one trained buffalo, but they actually was, uh with one of the farms that they had. They sort of put like little hoofcuffs on the buffalo so it couldn't like get up and run around. But they were very team. They weren't like too you know, plus it was hot out too, so they weren't probably wanting to get too involved.
But we were really close, you know. Man. Tessa, the little girl at the time, she had to go up and feed a little buffalo and that was the most amazing thing because it was just a baby, little buffalo and it's like long purple tongue key mound, and you know, her at first was she was like very hesitant and not getting too close. So I sort of, you know, I was playing the brother I was playing the big brothers, so I was like, let me try it out, you know,
let's see how this goes. So I grabbed the little baby bottle to go feed the buffalo, and I you know, gave it and then it just grabbed my grab my wrist and its long purple tongue just like wrapped around and I sort of like gave a little giggle and giggle.
That was actually was like, oh my gosh, it was.
It was cuge. That would freak you out.
There's no way I would keep my composure like.
Or not. And so I sort of grabbed her and brought her, you know, brought her closer to it, and we just got through it together, and you know, that was Yeah, that was amazing.
But then there was a lot of green screen stuff going on to sure sure the buffalo stuff. I actually was a part of a show where uh, this wrangler was riding a buffalo like he had a saddle on this buffalo was riding it around and is this real? Like what? What? How was a buffalo?
No?
Like, who does this thing like that? And you know and this sorry, this was on into the west. So I got really comfortable around them. I knew that, you know, they you know, they're they are wild, but they aren't if you know, if you've been around cattle, they somewhat have that type of presence, you know. So I I've done some you know, a little bit of wrangling and riding in my time, so I you know, I'm comfortable
around them. I know what to do and how to you know, just respect their space, you know, not move fast, not you know, around them and whatnot. So you know, I've I had that type of experience before and I think it played well.
So they're they're just like, don't piss them off.
Yeah, your little sister.
And I wanted to ask because I know for a lot of the people we bring on that work on a Disney Channel movie, it's it's really nice because it's for a lot of the times a very rare thing where kid like kid actors get to work on set with a lot of other kid actors. A lot of times you know, you're usually one of few that are in the movie and you're kind of more around adults.
So was this Did this feel like a different vibe for you to be able to be around kids your age and you're all doing the same thing, all have the same dream, that kind.
Of thing, one hundred percent, you know, I was. I was one of those kids where you know, like it's all adults. Yeah, you know, like I had to grow up fast. I grew up fast on the you know, in film and being around uh, you know, all adults all the time. You know that that kind of sucked a lot. You know, it's working. You know, you're working, and but then when you come to a film like this and kids are around, there's mountain bikes, you know, like, yeah,
we got to be kids. We got to you know, hang out, and you know, I made some great friends with Riley and and Max. You know, like Max and I, you know, we were best buds in the show, but we became best buds as well. I you know, I haven't talked to him for a while, but we we hung out for a while. He was up and down. I was in l A for a bit. He'd come up to Vancouver, on a show, give me a call
and we you know, we hung out. So yeah, it was it was awesome to hang out with kids and be kids for once, you know, and and allow that the kids to be kids. And it felt good, you know. And being being a mountain biker as well really played well too.
I got to oh were you you were? You were a mountain biker before the show start other than Vancouver, man, Yeah, they also give you.
A beach cruiser to mountain bike? Did they give you one of those beach cruisers?
We all had to We all had to jump on it just so that Riley didn't feel so bad about it. You know, Okay, we're able to ride and check it out. But it was that thing was a hard thing to ride.
Man.
Insane.
Yeah, yeah, crazy. But when you come from when you come from the res, you just almost adapt to any bike that you get, right. You might get an amy down from your your your grandfather, you might get a hand ride from your cousin or you know, hopefully you get one from your cousin because it's a it's newer. But you know, we had some ross buckets rolling around here. You know, you hear somebody coming up the road, and.
We actually liked how he handled it in the movie though. We liked how he's like, all right, it's it's exactly like I get I get wheels. I'm fine, I'm fine.
But I'm also like, there's just no way that bike could do like mountain biking. It's literally made to walk to ride on a cement walkway next to sand did well, So where did they have you guys staying when you guys were up in that area? Because so okay, So to give you a little bit of like backstory with us, as we noticed, Salt Lake is like a huge place for the d cooms to to film a ton I mean,
at least half of them. I feel like our film there and this was our first time, which we loved to see another part of Utah that we don't get to see a lot in the in these movies. But it made me think, how far away were you guys from Salt Lake? Were they Did they put you up in like a hotel that was in the city or were you guys like all cabining it out because that's where it looked like there was nothing around.
We travel we traveled around. We had our you know, our main hotels, were right down in Utah in Salt Lake, and and then we just like bounced around. We were at Provo Falls. Okay, funny how it's funny how as we're talking, I'm starting to remember a little bit more. I was just I was just talking to my fiance and I'm like, man, I can't even remember some of these things. And I didn't want to bring that up to make me feel like I'm you know that I'm getting you.
Know, that's very common.
It's been a it's been a minute. So as we're talking, you know, I remember Provo Falls being so epic. It was so beautiful just being around out there. You know, they kept us in some small motels. It is what it is, you know. I'm you know, I'm sure with that, but being in and around these cool landscapes, you know, getting to see Utah, you know, like we probably could have just green screened it all and went into a
studio and did it that way. But we got out there. Man, Like, we got to see Utah and be a part of Utah. And and I have a buddy that lives down there and he's like, oh, you've been there. I was like, yeah, man, I filmed up there. And he's like, oh, that's pretty cool. You know, get out there.
You know, was that the waterfall you guys like jumped off of and that was.
So beautiful scene.
That was like when we were up there, that was provo falls. And then when we were doing the actual jump, uh, you know, I'm going to break it down and ruin it for everyone.
But that's okay, it's movie magic, we know.
But we were at uh, we went to this big Olympic pool and we you know, jumped off of this big diving board and so.
Goddamn it.
It was too rocky and like you know, like.
Yeah, dangerous myself and as.
We're all miners. Yeah, doing a big you know, Disney production, you know, and Disney wants to have a write up of losing some kids down the falls.
No wait, I'm sorry we ran over that. Did you just say you've done some cliff jumping up where you are?
Yeah?
Yeah, we got beautiful you know up in Whistler, up in our territories, we got some beautiful falls and you know.
Yeah, but don't jump off of them.
I'm a kid.
I gotta yolo yolo will yoo. I don't know what that means. Once there you go.
I love that. Now.
Another question, you mentioned that you did some singing for the UH audition. Was it all was the song always lean On?
No, it wasn't. But I'm a big Temptations fan, so
I sang my girl okay okay. So I did a little bit of that with my audition, and then we just you know, sitting back talking about what, you know, what I could be comfortable about singing and you know, being around, and you know, I was like, yeah, that kind of you know, works a little bit, you know, the Temptations saying that, but it was you know, you know, and it just played well, you know, I didn't even I didn't even think about it being lean on Me
type of thing, you know, and when you're doing it, it just just happened.
It worked, It worked, it did. I'm sorry it worked.
Yeah.
I have to ask, because we love to ask this of all of our guests, when's the last time you actually watched Buffalo? So?
I have two kids. I have a fifteen year old daughter that you know, when she first saw, you know, because it is on Disney. So when she first saw that, it blew her mind. It was like, oh, Daddy's on Daddy's on Disney, so you know, got some really good points doing. And then now Disney Channel came up put it on there. And my son, he's six years old, so we just watched that probably maybe a year and a half ago. Okay, yeah, and it's still up there,
and you know, it's just curious. I get, you know, punch it in and see if Buffalo Dreams is still up there, you know, and I put it and I put it up there, and once again I got Dad points you know, like yeah, my son's oh, that's you know, like it, and it's just awesome. It just carries on, you know, and and now we're talking about it again, and you know, reliving the experience is just it's it's precious. Man.
The joy of Disney never goes away.
Have you felt the level of nostalgia from the fans since it because it has, you know, Disney Plus has really kind of reinvigorated people finding out movies that they didn't know about before. You know, have you felt that nostalgia at all?
When I go down to the States. I was down in Fort Lauderdale and I was just walking around and you know, hanging out, and this little kid comes up and points at me like, oh, you know, like and I'm like, oh, you must recognize me from one of these shows. In this his dad came up and he said,
my son, he recognized you from Buffalo Dreams. And I'm like, oh, you know, it made me feel good because you know, as long as I still resemble a little bit of that, you know, that usefulness back, they know that somebody can remember remember me how I look back then, you know. And so I said, oh great, you know, so yeah, you know, like you get these you know, these little kids that are rewatching it again and seeing that type
of thing. And you know that, I think there's not too many Disney shows out there, especially on the channel Disney Channel that has a story like this, you know.
No, definitely not. We haven't seen any yet. We've done fifty seventy five of these movies.
So there's not that too many stories that have that inclusion part and that you know that the kids coming together, you know that type you know, yeah, and that needs to be promoted more. You know, like actually, now that you know that colors and differences, it doesn't matter if you're a kid. We don't see that. Kids don't see those type of things. It's the parents that instill that into them.
I was just gonna say, unless they were taught to see that, that's when it gets bad.
Yeah.
I think the channel, like we watched will what was the name of the DJ one, Oh, there's been like there's a couple. If there's a channel to do it, Disney is the channel.
Yeah.
So it's a movie called Spin and it brought in just all of these there's different movies. There's a Cheetah Girls three, there's there's even we went to Barcelona for the second time, and there's there's a way Disney does it a really great way that like kids can really soak it in, you know different.
And that's one thing I said when we.
Were talking about, you know a little bit of flack of like the the NOVLJ being upset that not everything was represented correctly in their their brain.
It was like, but the.
Great thing is it put a seed in there in these kids mind to then hopefully want to go look and find more information and get interested in it, which I think is just brilliant. You don't have to give them everything, just plant a seed to give their curiosity, you know, some some food of wanting to like get fed more of what what else is there out there of this, you know, and I just love that. And the Channel is the place to have your kid find this stuff because they do it in such a beautiful way,
you know, and I love that. And this movie was just a perfect representation I felt of doing that exact thing for kids.
Well, that's a perfect transition into something that I was looking into and just look so intriguing to me. And talk about bringing your culture to other places and learning about other cultures. I'd like to talk a little bit about native planting, which just sounds like an incredible project. Can you tell our listeners a little bit about what that is?
So when you get these type of roles and these type of things that just sort of, you know, the universe just throws it out there and just tells you you're ready for something. You know. I was having a little moment in my life where you know, I was not too sure where I was supposed to be. You know,
I just had a kid. No, my kid was probably three four years old, and I was just in a transition, you know, I was I was young, probably one ty four, and you know, I just was looking around and I was sitting down outside just and it was night, and I remember this like looking up into the abyss and just saying, you know, hey, Creator, you know, if there's something out there for me, you know, if there's something
that you know, I something else for me. I was sitting in this sort of just a pick up job type of thing, and and I just needed something more. If I'm supposed to be back in the industry or if i'm you know, I wouldn't mind traveling. I wouldn't mind going getting away for a bit, you know. And so literally two days later, I get a phone call from this company called Real World, and this producer gets on and says, you know, my name's Dennis Buchett, and I'm with Real World.
Me.
We have a show that you might be interested in, and it has to do with traveling, and would you like to travel the world with us?
Oh my god, yes, it was this is this a creator?
Hello?
I was gonna say, yeah, h this is Dennis Creator.
When you put the good vibes out and you put those type of things out there and you're ready for something new in your life and something comes in that way, it just seems like that's how my life has been rolled out, you know, And I've so many amazing opportunities in my career that this one came in at the right time and because you know, it really grounded me back and gave me humility and gave me the growth that I really needed to become this person that I've
become now. You know, because I've been on I've been in industry, I've been on some really big productions like Buffalo Dreams. But you know, it was the atmosphere, the glits and the glamour and you know, the hair and the makeups and the big trailers and all of those types of things where this opportunity came. And they said, simon, we understand you've done big productions. This one is going to be a little bit smaller. There's four of us traveling.
We where the camera, where the sound, where the lighting, and it's you. You're the host, and you're gonna You're gonna drive us to where we need to go. And I said, Okay, that's that's cool. You know, that's that's an opportunity. And as a host, I didn't you know a host in an environmental show, a cultural show, who pops up into your mind, David Suzuki, you know the the Australian guy that has you know, Steve Irwin. Yes, yeah, yes, that are just like in there knows so much, you know.
I was just this young, you know, native guy that you know, was fresh as a parent and just trying to understand what adulthood is. And I was just like, oh, man, like I'm watching David Suzuki, I'm watching Steve Irwin tabes and I'm just like, do I be that guy like this? You know, know what all the type of you know. But then I just got there and every single episode was interesting to me. Every episode that I got to
see was all new to me. There wasn't something that you know, a landscape that I was a part of
that I was aware of. I understood that our indigenous voice, our culture, our environment is sort of miss misunderstood, or or it's it's at a default, or it's it's in uh you know, with with our environment where the stewarts of the lands, we protect it and we when we look after it, and and a lot of these things are coming into our our lands without any discussion and and you know taking from Mother Earth and and you know, doing those type of things. So I was aware of that.
But when you go into these type of remote locations, it really opens up your eyes.
So what what exactly is the show you were You're going from.
Native Planet is as a travel show and environmental and cultural issues that are that are facing our planet. And I jump in and talk with these you know, these activists, these elders, these young ones that are stepping up for their territory, their their rights and really being the leaders of our indigenous people. And I just get to you know, I had like four or five questions, and that's what I rolled with. It was just the who, what, when
where type of thing. I could just sit there and you know, be I was a passenger almost of just watching these these great people talk about how they were protecting culture, how they were protecting environment, and and a lot of them were very you know, very smart and educated and you know all of that. But then being in the territory, being in these remote locations. You know, I always tell this story, you know, from coming from Hollywood,
you know, the the big glitz and glamour. I went to the Syriacu jungle on the first episode and I got sick, Oh where where? Now?
Where is the Syriaci.
Jungle, Ecuador? It's about hours away from Quito, Ecuador, and you fly into a little DC plane and you fly into the jungle. You know, there's there's jaguars, there's anaconda's every morning I woke up to this big crab spider hanging out right beside my hut, and I'm like, oh what, I just just.
Don't look at it.
I don't I don't know, I don't you know, if I don't want to find out, you know, yeah, I don't want to step on it. It was so big, you know, it could.
So you got wait, you got sick. Was it something you ate.
Or it might have been you know. And so what I feel was it comes all with how this whole story and everything has you know, taught me and it was leaving all of the stress, all of the stuff that was toxic in my life at the time, and I brought it towards uh to this jungle. And I met this medicine man. He was like in his nineties. He was actually blind, and so this medicine man saw me. And when I went through what I was going through,
it was day three and I was just purging. I was just like everything was coming out of me and I just was I still was filming. I still had to get up and you know, film around this. But on that third day, this medicine man came to my hut and just put his hand on me, and he only he only spoke Keechua and that, and you know it's not Spanish. I understand, you know, paquito Espanol, but he didn't speak that, so I didn't understand the you know,
he just was shoeing me this way. And then the interpreter came over and said, oh, he wants to chat with you. He wants to sit with you. So we went into this community. But and he sat down and he said, you're he said in the interpreter was, you know, interpreting, and he said what he saw from you was just darkness around you. You had no light, you had no aura about you. And so now he feels that you've purged everything out of you and now it's time to open up again. It's time to come forward and be
who you're supposed to be. And so I went on this ayahuasca. I drank some ayahuasca with him, and you know, it opened up my life. It started me on this journey of native planet and a beautiful only it became two seasons, sixteen episodes, ten years of traveling.
Now, where can we find that? Because I really want to watch.
You can get it on I think you can get it on YouTube or a Native planet dot ca. Check it out. Okay. These stories are the stories that are hard that nobody really tells too much about. You know, this, this community in the Sariaku woke up one day and the government came and we're helicoptering them out and for what for a pipeline to run through their And then
the families were like, no, we're not leaving. They were, you know, and they stood their ground and they fought the government and still to this day are in their territories fighting to stop Petro Ecuador from running a big pipeline through their territory. You know, it's it's it's it's a hard one, you know. And when that, when those stories happen, you know, I bring those stories back home and I tell my people, our community, you know, they
had no voice at the table. We have at least our government and industry understands when they come to our table. We're still in negotiations. We're still fighting where you know, we're we we here and in our squamish nation where that we just wrote our first environmental assessment and we are the ones that are maintaining it. So you know, we're we're gradually doing things. So you know, it's giving those those communities voices, you know, further than where it
comes from. You know, you you yourself have never heard of the Sariaku jungle. Check it, check it out, look it up. Beautiful, beautiful ways, and you know it's it just carried on and it gave me growth. You know, I couldn't say that without that show that, you know, I wouldn't be who I am today.
Yeah, that's unbelievable. All right, one last question for you and then we'll let you go. If you could talk to yourself before you did Buffalo Dreams right now, what advice would you give yourself?
Funny story? And I'm closing with a funny story. So a week before I went to film Buffalo Dreams, I needed some bro time. I needed to hang out with the bros. So I went and rented out a pad in Whistler and we were enjoying the summer, you know, just being boys in our pool. I just decided to jump over the fence into the pool and be cool and be the cool dude. And I jumped the fence and my big toe got stuck in between these little you know, the crevices of the cement went down like this,
and it broke. So I took two days of just suffering and trying to you know, self medicate myself that and and hey, high anxiety towards what I was going to tell my agent. And so on day two I looked at my big toe and my big toe was black and blue, bleeding still on day two and I'm like, oh, I screwed myself here.
Oh oh no, And.
I called my agent. I'm like, dude, I broke my big toe. I went to the doctor and they're like, yeah, your big toe is broken. They can't do anything. You can't cast you can't do anything. And he's like, we're signed to a contact simon, like you know, like you're either going to pay yourself out of this or you're
going to suck it up and go do it. And so for I for four or five days, I sort of I sort of hid away from everybody when I got When I got there, we had like a week of rehearsal, and so I just sort of like, did a little hobble around. I didn't. I should have been on my crutches, but I was troubling around. I was on you know, Thailand halls. And so if I could go back and tell myself not to be that cool dude trying to impress my buddies that don't care.
Down the stairs like a normal.
Human, because I suffered. I stuffed under that. Shoot, we were mountain biking, you know there's oh yeah, I was so physicalizing and doing these type of stunts and whatnot. And so I would tell my my my stupid young self, don't do anything stupid. You don't need to prove anybody.
Oh my god, wild did anyone ever find out? Did you ever like confess anyone? My Joe was broken?
Well, so when we were climbing the pro Bow Falls, it was like the late late day of filming, and my my advils were run out, and I just you know, and I told our first d d. I just said, hey, I need to go home. I need to you know, call it a day.
Here.
My my foot is aching man, and she just sort of looks at me and she's like, what do you mean? And so I pulled her off to the side and I took my foot off, my my shoe and took my sock off, and it was, you know, like it's still black and blue, and oh what you know? And then and then uh, our producer the next day came and was like, Simon, you put us in a circumstance here,
you know. Yeah, they're a week into shooting and you're you're rolling around on a broken foot, and I'm like, sorry, you know, oh man, I just wanted to be a part of this show so bad, you know, and I won't cause an issue. I'm going to do the best that I can. And so they you know, it played out. It did it, you know, I I sucked it up. I did the best I actually, you know, really massaged it every night, and you know I did it.
You know, yeah, learn.
You could have been you could have been sitting here talking with somebody else, if you know.
Yeah right, yeah, somebody who walked through the game instead of jumping over. Well, thank you so much for taking the time to join us. We really enjoyed the film and we just were so happy that you were able to take some time to sit and talk with This has been great.
Yeah, thank you, Thanks for wanting to, you know, spread some more love for Buffalo Dreams, you know. But it's amazing. So if anybody else hasn't seen it out there on this Disney uh what is it called?
Magical Disney plus.
Disney Plus, check it out. Man, like the show out. It's still relevant. It is. I look older, but the show is still relevant.
It looks great.
Thank you.
Also, go check out the Native Planet. I can't wait to see that. It sounds great.
Check it out. I had you know, there's a couple other shows. Hey, Victor, you know I'm about to take off to do another film, so I'm I'm still at it at thirty some years later.
That's amazing. Well, thank you so much for joining us. We can't wait. Hopefully we'll have you back for some.
Awesome Thank you.
Thanks so much, Simon you guys man, gosh, there's so much to talk about. First of all, that Native Planet sounds amazing.
Wow.
I would never I don't think I could do it. I think I'd have to force myself to do it to see if much of the world as I could. But that would for you.
For Jaguar and anacondas he's talking about I.
Am now, yeah, no, don't even believe that, you know, not me, not I think I might try. No, no, I would try. But good for him.
I'm glad that he filmed it so I still can be somewhat a part of it.
That's one true he kind of He also kind of buried the lead the idea. If you go back and watch Buffalo Dreams with how active all the stuff he had to do with the bike riding and climbing, everything to do he's doing all that on a giant broken bloody toe is kind of amazing crazy. Uh yeah, So
everybody go check it out. It is great. And thank you so much mister Simon Baker for joining us and join us over on the other feet as we review awesome movies with awesome people, or come back to this where next time we're gonna be talking to Timasimas somebody else about some other movie. We never know, they just tell us and then we get to do all the research, which is a ton of fun. So thank you everybody, and we will see you next time. Bye.